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A decent kettle at a reasonable price.

===Motivation===After a poor experience with a very expensive Morphy Richards kettle I switched to buying dirt cheap value kettles. I went through a string of different brands' budget kettles but each one died after about 6 months. I decided to switch to something mid-range. I wanted a not too expensive kettle that would last a few years. After reading loads of reviews I settled on the Prestige Dakota Jug Kettle which cost me a little over £20 (at the time) and came with a two year guarantee.

===Features===Like most kettles, this one holds up to 1.7L of water and has an automatic boil-dry safety cut out. It has a 3000W concealed element. After my budget kettles I realize how much I appreciate having a concealed element since I live in a hard water area- the lime scale builds up much slower and needs to be descaled less frequently than an exposed element.

This kettle has a 360 degree swivel base (meaning you can place the kettle on facing any way) and the base is non-slip so it doesn't migrate across your worktop. There is space inside the base to wrap excess cord, but since the cord is relatively short (75cm) I don't see this as a terribly useful feature.

There are water level gauges on both sides of the kettle making them easy to see, but they only mark the minimum level, 1L, and the maximum (1.7L). A few more level markings would have been nice. The gauges glow blue when the kettle is switched on.

===What I like about the Prestige Dakota Kettle===I have this kettle in black with blue water level gauges. It looks reasonably nice (far better than the nasty white budget kettles). It heats up reasonably quickly. A full kettle of water boils in about 3 and a half minutes (I just timed it as 3m 32s, but the exact time varies depends on the starting temperature of the water). It takes about a minute and a half (just timed at 1m 28s) at the minimum level (about 650ml).

The screen over the spout works well and prevents any stray calcium build up from escaping into your tea. It is easy to remove and clean and pops back into place without fuss.

This kettle is relatively quiet when boiling, which is nice.

===What I don't like about this kettle===My biggest gripe is the high minimum level. At 650ml the minimum level is far too much water for a single cup of tea. It is even too much for two mugs of tea or coffee- so this isn't the most economical kettle.

The pouring spout is relatively shallow so you have to pour the water slowly or you risk spilling it. This is fine for a cup of tea but can be a little irritating if you are pouring a full kettle into a pot for pasta. Sometimes I just open the lid to pour out a full jug into a pot since I don't care about the water going through the screen.

===Price and Availability===I bought my kettle off Amazon for £22, but it is currently listed at £31.83 (the blue version is listed at £19.99). I think it was excellent value for money when I bought it, but don't think it is overpriced even at full price.

===Conclusions===I am reasonably happy with this kettle. After 8 months it is still working well. The 2 year guarantee gives me peace of mind. It heats up quickly and doesn't require much maintenance. I just wish the minimum level was a bit lower.

Update: Another 6 months on and this kettle is still going strong.

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Not the best kettle in the world

I'm not a huge tea or coffee drinker but my husband needs coffee to function so a kettle is an essential in our house. A few months ago our old kettle went pop.....fizzle....bang and emitted a sad little plume of smoke, so my husband left immediately to go and get the much needed replacement. He returned home with this kettle from Sainsburys which cost him £29.97. A matching toaster is also available for £25.97. The kettle retails from the Prestige website for £35 and from Amazon for around £30.

My first impressions of this kettle were that it was much sleeker than our clunky old basic kettle that we had had before. It has a more aesthetically pleasing shape, the lid pops up at the touch of a button, bits light up and the kettle is red with a subtle sparkle. The base feels light but its design means that the kettle can swivel so the handle can be on the left or the right hand side (or indeed anywhere inbetween). This is useful for us due to the position we have placed the kettle in the kitchen, it can be swivelled to the left to pour into a saucepan and to the right to fill cups placed on the worksurface. Unlike our old kettle where we had to wrench the lid up to fill the kettle this one has an easy to press button above the handle, although the cynic in me wonders how long it will work. A sleeker switch under the handle starts the kettle running. The spout has a small filter which is very easy to remove and rinse under the tap, which is a godsend when you live in a hard water area like us.

This kettle has 3000w and a 1.7 litre capacity (6-8 cups) and is supposed to be a rapid boiler. It does seem to be quicker than our old basic model, however it is also proportionately louder, so much so that I actually took a step back the first time that I used it. It roars at you and the noise starts pretty much straight away rather than building slowly. When it is in operation the two strips on either side of the handle light up with a blue light, illuminating the level of water in the kettle. The level gauge is pretty easy to read, but its not something I use as I am more interested in making sure that the water in the kettle is over the minimum required. Apparently the kettle has a boil-dry cutout but I prefer not to test that, not even for a Dooyoo review. It also has an overheat protector which I also have not had reason to use yet, but I suppose if you wanted a cup of tea every ten minutes for an hour this would be annoying.

So it looks nice and it boils quickly albeit noisily, so why the three stars? Well, it has some serious defaults when it comes to pouring. The mouth of the kettle is wide rather than narrow and curved so when you pour the water comes out fast and fills a cup much quicker than the traditional kettle style. Then there is the awkwardly styled handle which makes the kettle difficult to pick up easily, especially if you have small, weak hands like me - I can't physically lift the kettle with one hand when it is full. The handle is too wide for me to get my hand around it securely and the 'soft grip' handle doesn't feel very secure under my fingers. Finally the handle is angled and weighted so that you have to fight to stop it from tipping forward when you lift it up. When the kettle is very full its even harder to fight the kettle and I am worried about an accidental spill of water on me or my children. I prefer to boil it several times if I need more than two cups of water because of these concerns.

This is a nice kettle but I would not recommend it to anyone with small children or small/weak hands. It is quick to boil and it looks lovely on our worktop, plus the lights are an added little bonus feature. However it is not very well designed and it is very noisy when it is in use which is annoying if you want to watch something on television or have a conversation whilst the kettle boils.

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A kettle I cannot recommend.

Prestige Dakota 1.7 litre Kettle.

My rapid boil kettle blew up one morning prior to going to work so I used the spare kettle we had bought as an emergency standby but it was far too slow for my liking so off I went to Sainsburys on the hunt for a new kettle. Unfortunately there was very little choice on the shelves except for this Prestige Dakota kettle for £29.95 which I popped in the trolley to take home with me.

The kettle is a jug shaped kettle made from crimson red plastic and is rapid boil kettle with a 3000w concealed element in the base of the jug. It has a black lid and handle at the top there is a button to open the lid and just under the base of the handle the switch. At the front of the kettle is the pouring lip and just inside is a small filter which should stop any chalk from pouring out of the kettle should you be in a region where scale in the kettle is a problem.

The kettle sits on a black 360 degree swivel base so you can turn the kettle to pick it up whether you are left or right handed. The base comes with an inbuilt reasonable 12" long electric lead which means that it stays far away from the edge of the kitchen worktop surface reducing the risk of it being pulled by prying young hands. Once boiled the walls of the kettle are very hot.

Although the colour does not blend in with the rest of the kitchen decor it didn't really bother me although my wife gave me a bit of an ear bashing for choosing this colour! Although I like the look of the kettle and the fact that it is rapid boil it seems ok to me but my wife is not a fan of the colour. But hey ho I have the patience of a flea and couldn't be bothered waiting for the interminably slow spare kettle to boil.

On one side of the kettle there is a water gauge indicator which shows the minimum amount of water and the maximum amount of water that can be used safely in the kettle. What I like about it is that when the kettle is heating up there is an illuminating blue light which lights up the water gauge during the heating process. When the kettle has boiled the light goes out.

What I like about this kettle!

I have found that the kettle is indeed a rapid boil kettle. I like the fact that it lights up while the water is heating up.

What I do not like is the pouring ability of the kettle.

I have found that when pouring the water into a teapot or a cup and I pour too fast then the hot scalding water seems to bypass the filter and leaks out either side of the pouring lip. I think that perhaps this is a bit dangerous if young children are around you and could potentially pour over the little mites! I think the filter tends to impede the water from being poured out at a fast rate.

Would I recommend this kettle?

I think that perhaps this is a bit of a design flaw and have great reservations about recommending this kettle to anyone else. That being said I think that there is a potential for accidents to happen with the kettle I cannot really recommend it. I guess the answer really is to take care when pouring water from this kettle and at a much slower rate than my previous kettles.

The rating system below is inappropriate for this kettle as it does not take pictures and certainly does not play music and needs no installation apart from plugging it in.

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Great kettle, glad I bought it.

Last time I bought a kettle it was cheap and functional but didn't last very long. So this time around I decided to fork out for something a bit more expensive. I looked long and hard (along the shelves at my local Sainsburys - cos lets face it, its not quite as life and death as buying a new car) and plumped for the Prestige Dakota Jug Kettle. It appears to come in two colours and I opted for the cream, rather than the red shown above. It cost me the grand amount of £28.99, although it is cheaper on Amazon, about the middle of the range of prices.

I am happy with my purchase. It fits very nicely in the space my previous kettle occupied but looks much more stylish. It holds a generous 1.7 litres, and the measuring guage is situated at the back, by the handle, so you can read it easily when filling it up. The handle is comfortable to hold and the jug itself is easy to manipulate around while you hold it so it makes filling it up a doddle. I was initially concerned when looking at the kettle in the shop, that the small apperture at the top would make filling it difficult, but it wasn't at all. And it has a cool flip up lid which opens with the push of a button at the top of the handle. So you don't even have to work out what to do with the lid while you are filling it up. I also like the fact that the lip on the lid comes down into the lip of the jug and sits just over the top of the filter whilst it is shut. This lets in less dust and also lets out less steam after boiling.

The jug sits on a circular base with the electrical connection in the centre and this allows you to place the jug so that it swivels a full 360 meaning you can have the handle exactly where you want it so it doesn't matter if you are left or right handed. The element is concealed, so it even looks attractive on the inside and makes cleaning it really easy. The element is also 3000W and it boils really quickly.

This is a good thing, but also a shame, because when you switch the kettle on from it's little flip switch under the handle, the water guage glows blue. And it looks so cool in the dark!!! I sometimes wish I could just leave it to boil, just so I can watch the blue glow, but of course it turns itself off automatically. Ah well!

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A sexy looking kettle if ever there was one

I bought one of these almost a year ago now using a few Tesco vouchers from their Direct Catalogue for around £30. For what was essentially a freebie with the Clubcard points, I was still looking for something reasonably long-lasting a high quality; I haven't been disappointed greatly yet so I'm happy enough with it.

Dakota wasn't a brand I'd heard of before, but I came across a few kitchen appliances in their range when I was browsing and the designs caught my eye. The kettle looked shiny and neat, and the red was quite funky compared to my usual opting of silver and stainless steels. I also noticed that the glossy colour looked ever so slightly glittery, making it really stand out.

This is described as a 'stylish jug kettle' and it definitely looks the part. It's smooth, shiny and bright, with a neat grey/black contrast on the handle and lid, along with a small section of silver at the bottom. To spice things up a bit, the transparent area where you can see the water lights up blue when it's boiling, just to set it apart from the crowd.

Something I've found irritating in the past has been the cord, which can either be too long or short and the base can often slip depending on your surface. With this kettle, there's cord storage and a non-slip base, which solves those issues. When I refer to the cord, I mean for the base itself as the actual kettle is cordless. The base also offers a 360 degree swivel, which makes it more agronomical for both left and right handed usage. The handle also has a soft-grip outer material which makes it easier to hold and pour.

Some kettles can be quite tacky, even if they look sturdy, and that can be a problem for the lid. Fortunately this has a button to press and automatically open it, and it's a fairly smooth action and hasn't been a problem thus far. It doesn't have a flap (not sure how else to describe it) at the end where you pour the water out either which means there's one less thing to worry about breaking off.

In terms of what it stores, this has a 1.7 L capacity which is plenty for a family round of tea. There's a concealed element inside to help reduce lime scale and so far the quality of the inside of my kettle has stayed relatively decent. It's easy to see how much water you're putting in because of the clearly labelled black marking on the transparent area towards the front right, and this shows the guidelines for minimum and maximum levels.

The only little downside that I've noticed overtime is that it can occasionally leak slightly when you pour; the spout is designed well for pouring, and yet sometimes water has gone elsewhere down the kettle rather than in the cup. Nonetheless, I haven't found this to be a big problem, and water going down it doesn't hurt it because it's plastic, rather than a metal.

The boiling time is fairly quick, obviously not instantaneous, but reasonable in my opinion, as is the noise level. I don't know of a silent kettle, but there's no bells or whistles so it's as understated as possible. Aside from the blue light that is, which I think looks very funky!

Overall, this is one I would recommend not just for it's appearance but because it's so far been good quality, easy to use and reliable, whilst also being priced reasonably all things considered.

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A kettle that not only looks good, but does the job quickly and efficiently too.

When my OH boiled our old kettle with either little or no water in (stupid!) and burnt the bottom of it, therefore rendering it useless, I wasn't amused at first, because I would have to go out and spend money to replace an item that up until then had been working perfectly for years. But once I actually started to look at the range of kettles that is available now-a-days, I was secretly pleased that I could buy a funky new one that would match my kitchen colour scheme better lol!

I'd started to introduce a lot more red items into my kitchen, and so I decided that this was the colour I would go for, and I certainly did have a lot of choice, red must be one of the 'in' colours this year or something! The one I really wanted was about £80, which was way more than I wanted to spend, and so I got it narrowed down to this Prestige one and a Bosch one, but upon comparing the two side by side, this one won hands down on both looks and functionality.

The usual recommended retail price of this kettle is £39.99, but when I bought it it had been reduced by a tenner to £29.99, and at this price, it was much more in my price bracket. Upon closer inspection of it, not only is it a very lovely shade of red, it also has very subtle flecks of red glitter in it! Another cool feature that I really like too -one I didn't realise until first using it- is that the water level windows glow a very bright blue when in use, and this looks really funky, especially in low light.

But, on to more technical details! It's a 3KW kettle which means it's a rapid boil, which means that when it is full to the maximum, which is 1.7 litres, it takes about 3 mins 20 seconds to boil which to me for a kettle full to capacity, is pretty fast., and obviously, if you just put enough in for one to two cups, it is extremely fast indeed. The element is concealed, which is great for helping prevent the build up of limescale, something that those of us living 'Oop North', don't really have to deal with, but for those who live in hard water areas, this should come in pretty handy.

If you haven't had a kettle with a concealed element before, you may notice the kettle might be abit louder when boiling, but I honestly haven't noticed this to be a problem at all, I really would say that compared to some kettles I have heard, this is actually a really fairly quite kettle.

There is a water level window on each side of the kettle, making this great for either left or right handed people and it has a 360 degree swivel base which makes it easy to change it's orientation. It has a non-slip base, and cord storage under the base of the kettle, which I make full use of, as my kettle always stays in the same place, I wind the excess cord around, then I haven't got a length of cord across my worktop.

The opening of the lid couldn't be easier and smoother, a simple flick of a button flips the lid up making it very easy to fill the kettle. When pouring the water into your cup etc, I have never had a problem with drips or with the water flowing out too fast, I've also never had a problem with any leakage at all with this kettle. It is also a faitly light kettle too, which is important for people who suffer with problems in their wrists and hands such as arthritis.

I think the feature that I love most about this kettle is the 'automatic boil dry safety cut out' feature, this, given the reason why I had to buy a new kettle in the first place, is a very good idea indeed! So in theory, it should be foolproof really....notice I said 'In theory'....

Another thing to note, is that there is also a matching toaster to go with this kettle, it is a 2 slice one, and usually retails at £29.99, although at the moment it is £24.99, and I am sooo tempted to buy it, but I'm being good, as I don't like buying things if I don't really need them, or if the one I've got already is still working, so for now I'll hold out on that. The kettle and toaster are also available in a cornflower blue colour too, which is also very nice.

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Not Ideal if you use the kettle regularly.

I ordered this Kettle on Amazon a few months ago because I got fed up of buying bust up kettles from Asda and Tesco so I figured Amazon would have a better kettle for me to handle. I must admit, the pretty red/black color convinced me that this was the kettle of my dreams but sadly it didn't live to my expectations..

Don't get me wrong, it is a functioning kettle. It's light weight, has a cord storage inside it, it opens automatically when you slide the little black button on top of it rather the the convention kettle of using your hands to open the lid. It has a high capacity of water (1.7Litres) and it boils in three minutes which is rather fast. I love that it has a concealed element of stainless steel which prevents the kettle from building lime-scale. The handle of the kettle is very soft which makes gripping the kettle very easy. It also has the advantage of pouring well in that it doesn't spill when you pour into your cuppa, neither does it spit water when it boils.

Now comes the bad bit... ITS TOO BLOODY NOISY!! I don't know about you, but I hate noisy kettles, especially when you're watching TV or when your talking to someone and it just totally takes over your ear space. It is very hard to clean (difficult to reach those areas that are prone to lime-scaling) and the cord is a little too short, so its difficult to actually shift the kettle to where you really want it to be. I also found that the boiled water has a rather funny taste, like you're drinking swimming pool water. It's also too expensive for what it actually is worth.

Not an ideal buy, unless you're in a hurry and haven't got time to buy a decent kettle. I personally wouldn't recommend you buy this as they are better kettles out there.

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Prestige Kettle

We have this kettle from Prestige at work, and all of us find it working extremely well and fast, and we couldn`t be happier with it! This kettle is being used a lot every single day, and it`s still looking as if it was new, also serving with the same efficiency and quality as when brand new to the office.

Many of use are somewhat addicted to our daily cups of tea or coffee, and when we need them to be prepared in a hurry, a kettle is the way to go... This kettle has a capacity of 1.7 liters, meaning that it can fill quite many cups, taking about five minutes to boil the maximum ammount of water. This kettle is a chordless one, which I find very appealing and practical, as we used to have a kettle with a chord, which isn`t a major problem, but you really don`t miss it when it`s not there... The kettle comes with a removable filter, which I would clean and replace often, also cleaning the entire kettle in general quite often. Also a note, never use the kettle without the filter! Another great feature about this product, is that it can be fitted for both right and left handed people, a very original and helpful sollution! With a power of 3000 W, boiling the water goes by very quickly and will probably save you quite a bit of electricity, and with a lovely, deep red color, one has to admit that it looks very nice too! Some kettles get warm on the outside when the water is boiling on the inside, but this kettle from Prestige remains cool through out the entire process... The kettle is also not all that expensive, costing 27.99 at amazon. So the conclusion would be to give this kettle five out of five stars! And hey, using this kettle when evening dark creeps into your kitchen, well it`s a cool thing! Glowing blue I say!

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Great kettle which makes a quick cup of tea or coffee!

Well if your read my previous review then you will know that I just had to buy the kettle to match the toaster as well. It seems that I was right and that they do this Dakota set in red as the picture above proves. My kettle is black with a slight sparkle in it unlike the picture showing a red one.

The kettle we have been using was a cheap one from Tesco's which we have had for a couple of years and had started to get quite limscaley around the lid ( mainly because all the lazy people in my house fill it up through the spout!), so it was getting difficult to remove it. I hate tatty looking things in my kitchen and this was certainly looking that. So again I looked up all the reviews I could find and this brand came out tops again. I must admit it would not be the sort of kettle (or toaster!) that I would normally look at as usually everything I look at is in steel that I steer towards, but I did go and hunt this one after the good reviews I had read.

This is a cordless kettle which I have been used to using for some years now ( I couldn't go back to a corded one now!), but what I really like about this kettle is that it is suitable for both left and right handed people and being that I have 2 left handed people in my household it is perfect. The reason that I say this is because where the handle is there are two clear panels one of either side of the handle, which shows the water gauge. So you can swivel it round to either side depending on whether you are left or right handed and clearly see how much water there is in the kettle.

The water gauge has 3 lines on it which consist of the bottom one being the min line, the middle one being the 1 litre line and the top being the max line. In the center of the handle there is a soft textured rubber grip making it comfortable to use.

This is a concealed element kettle which is great as this stops the element from getting a limescale build up and will last longer. Having a 3000 watt motor means that this kettle boils up really quickly, saving on electricity as well.

When filling this kettle ( this has a button on the top that when pressed will let the lid pop up automatically) to the max ( this means 1.7 litres) you can get quite a few cups of tea or coffee out of this. We seem to just fill it to the min as everyone seems to be brewing at different times of the day or night. This kettle does have an automatic boil-dry safety cut out, which is very useful to have.

In the base of the spout there is a removable filter, which has to be cleaned on a regular basis, as if you do not keep this descaled it will affect your guarantee rights. This just slides out and upwards, which you then clean with soapy water and then return back to the spout. Never use it without the filter in place.

Now the best part is when you switch the kettle on it will glow a beautiful blue colour which looks lovely at night. You can see the water as it starts to boil all bubbling away.

You are recommended to boil the kettle up 3 times before using, which is what I did, because it boils so quickly this didn't take long at all before I could make my coffee.

Again this kettle is guaranteed for 2 years like the toaster, the only one thing that I would say is that being that it is a jug kettle it can get a bit awkward getting it under the tap, this is maybe because I have one tap that goes into a large arch arm, so I have to remove the board from my sink and fill it over that, which isn't hard (although I caught hubby forcing it under the tap!!! naughty!). I paid £31.97 in Tesco's , but have seen that you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Being I was using my Tesco vouchers it didn't in fact cost me anything to I don't mind paying the extra!